I Am Monster (Short Film)
Scott Hallam
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Starring Shannon Lark, Adam Cardon, Katie Fray, Jeff Dylan Graham
Written and directed by Shannon Lark and Lori Bowen
Picture if you will… a quiet morgue is suddenly disturbed in the middle of the night when an incredibly sexy woman in a rubber dress sashays her way in amongst the bodies. She begins to inspect the cadavers closely until she finds one that fits what she’s looking for. Then oh, how the fun begins! This is Vivienne.
Filmmaker Shannon Lark had her hands in all aspects of I Am Monster. She developed the story, co-wrote and co-directed with Lori Bowen, and was the star (and absolutely the focal point) of the film. Lark plays Vivienne, who has some seriously extreme fetishes she acts out in the morgue, when suddenly she finds herself in a discussion with the most unlikely of people. We’ll just say his name is Jason, and his arrival is certainly unexpected.
I Am Monster is nothing if not sexy. Vivienne is extremely alluring and… well, let’s say she’s a rather vocal and animated girl when she wants to be. However, just when you think her desires can’t get any more twisted, Vivienne proves you wrong and takes things one step further.
There isn’t a ton of depth here. It’s your basic short film progression. Lead us in, show us around, and then give us a shocker of an ending. Wham-bam-thank you, ma’am. The bar is closed, you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here. In this case, that formula works. This isn’t a story you can dig too deeply into, especially in a short film and especially in the frame of mind we find Vivienne in. This story was best told just as Lark and company drew it up. Basic and to the point. More is not always better. In this case the minimalism of the movie helps make it work. I Am Monster doesn’t have to get outrageously deep. It’s about the visuals, and they work really well.
I Am Monster is definitely worth checking out. It doesn’t try to do too much and follows the most important rule of filmmaking: be entertaining. Use whatever means you have at your disposal to get the audience interested, and this movie certainly does that. It’s simple. It isn’t going to blow you away with an intricate storyline, but it will certainly get your attention. There are definitely a couple WTF moments in this short film that are real toe-curlers. And that’s what helps it succeed. We’ve got one very sexy woman walking around doing some really outrageous stuff in the morgue after-hours. How could you go wrong with I Am Monster?
3 out of 5
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